


The stars remind you of freedom (and the well has not yet gone dry)

by liasangria



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Boring Parties, Multi, Parties, Polyamory, aus made up on the spot, flash prompt fill, super un-betaed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:00:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22256098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liasangria/pseuds/liasangria
Summary: Feferi Peixes contemplates her future and has maybe a little too much Angel's Sweet Red wine.
Relationships: Cronus Ampora & Eridan Ampora, Cronus Ampora/Feferi Peixes, Eridan Ampora/Feferi Peixes
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8
Collections: Polyswap Winter Promptfest - Dusk Edition





	The stars remind you of freedom (and the well has not yet gone dry)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thescyfychannel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thescyfychannel/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [thescyfychannel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thescyfychannel/pseuds/thescyfychannel) in the [Polyswap_Winter_Promptfest_Dusk_2020](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Polyswap_Winter_Promptfest_Dusk_2020) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> IT'S HOLIDAY PARTY SEASON Y'ALL. maybe this is for new year's eve or new year's day or a work event or an upperclass soiree with so much swank it could sink a ship, who knows!!
> 
> all Feferi knows is that she's stuck being both Cronus AND Eridan's date to at least one of these damn events in a dress that makes her look phenomenal and heels that still don't bring her close to their height and that if they're making her put up with small talk on top of all of this other shit, there had better be a side trip to a private closet (or the copy room, or a second guest bedroom, or the spare linen closet, or anything, really)
> 
> humanstuck preferred, Eridan and Cronus can absolutely be related and not involved or unrelated and definitely involved

As a princess of Lodag, you know how utterly boring upper-crust functions can be. 

However, in Lowaa, the upper-crust functions have taken boring to another level. You had no idea, when you signed the marriage contract binding you to not one, but two of the Lowaan princes, that their parties would make watching paint dry seem exciting by comparison. 

Maybe it’s not too late to convince your mother to marry Meenah to them instead, you think, draining your third—possibly fourth—glass of wine.

Your name is Feferi Peixes and you are very much regretting your life choices right now. 

Imbolic celebrations in Lodag involve feasting and dancing and general merrymaking, as is appropriate for the beginning of Spring. Imbolic celebrations in Lowaa are, apparently, more for mourning the end of Winter, for some ridiculous reason. 

A forest of candles on tall, wrought-iron stands line the edges of every room in the palace and highlight the stark, unforgiving edges while bathing it in a strangely somber glow. A funeral would be more cheerful. 

At least the Lowaan wine is decent. 

You sigh, and cast your gaze to one of your betrothed. 

Eridan Ampora cuts a striking figure, you must admit, even if his penchant for dramatics is something you foresee becoming highly obnoxious. He sweeps through the Great Hall with military precision, his ridiculous violet cape fluttering behind him. The candlelight gilds the side of his face, highlighting his (admittedly excellent) cheekbones and glinting off his dark hair. 

Your gaze is, inevitably, pulled to the other side of the room. Cronus Ampora, elder brother to Eridan, and your other betrothed, (another quirk of Lowaa: for some reason the ratio of women to men is 1:3, so it’s common and encouraged for brothers share a wife) is chatting up a bored-looking young man. Cronus is tall, dark, and handsome, just like Eridan, and is also an absolute disaster in all the ways Eridan isn’t. The Ampora brothers are simultaneously complete opposites and perfect reflections—two sides of the same coin. 

All at once, the reality of the situation—your future, the mind-numbing dullness of what passes for a party in Lowaa, and the four (maybe five) glasses of wine—constricts around your throat like a serpent and you can’t breathe. 

You set your empty glass down on a side table and flee. 

The four inch spiked heels of your shoes clatter ominously on white marble floors, the sound haunting you like a demon as you make your escape. 

The biting chill of Winter still lingers in Lowaa and you take deep, gulping breaths of the bracingly cold air. It grounds you. 

You look around. The courtyard you wound up in is small and the stark edges of the palace rise around it on every side. But the open sky with its cold, glittering stars stretches above your head, reminding you that this isn’t a cage, not really. 

Your breath puffs out in gauzy white mist. There’s a well in the center of the courtyard and you make your way over to it and peer down inside. It’s so deep it might well be endless, if it weren’t for the fact you could sense water at the bottom of it. 

“Not thinkin’ of jumpin’ in there, are you?” 

You twist around so fast you nearly lose your balance. Eridan is standing close behind you. Very close. He reaches out towards your shoulder and then thinks better of it, letting his arm hang awkwardly between you. 

“I just needed some fresh air,” you say, tucking an errant strand of hair behind your ear. 

You try for a smile, but from the look on Eridan’s face it must be closer to a grimace. 

“I don’t blame you, it’s stiflin’ in there,” another voice says. 

It’s Cronus. 

How they can both be so silent on marble floors you have no idea. 

Cronus sidles smoothly up to your side and in the same motion, removes his cape and swings it around your shoulders, displaying absolutely none of the awkwardness of his brother. He’s warm, and you lean into him, chasing the heat.

In the cold moonlight, you see a faint coloring dusting Eridan’s cheeks as he slowly and deliberately moves closer to you on your other side. You shoot him a smirk and snake your arm around his waist and pull him flush to your side. He’s full-on blushing now and you’re charmed despite yourself. 

The three of you stay that way for a while—a few minutes at least—until you break the silence. 

“In Lodag, we make offerings at wells on Imbolic.” 

“That’s why you’re freezin’ yourself out here?” Eridan says. 

It isn’t, but you let him think that, since the thought of explaining why you ran in the first place is too exhausting to contemplate. 

“Well that and she’s got the better part of a bottle of Angel’s Sweet Red in her,” Cronus says. “That’d make anyone want some cold air.” 

You hadn’t realized he’d been watching you that closely. You glance at him and he winks back. 

You don’t think it’s the wine-dizziness that’s making your head spin, now. 

“Imbolic here is boring as hell, but you should stick around for Beltane. That’s a real party,” Cronus says with a grin. 

You grin back at him, and snuggle closer. Eridan cautiously wraps an arm around your shoulders, and Cronus adjusts his cape so it’s covering the three of you. 

Maybe marrying the Ampora brothers won’t be so bad, after all.


End file.
